I'd have to say the character of Hammond Maxwell as portrayed by Perry King in the film
"Mandingo"
The following points contain multiple (seriously!) major spoilers of the film. If you haven't seen it, or haven't watched it for quite a while, I would suggest you at least consider viewing it. The film is actually much better than critics (at the time) gave it credit for...
MAJOR SPOILERS...MAJOR SPOILERS...MAJOR SPOILERS...MAJOR SPOILERS...
Hammond Maxwell was not overtly portrayed as a villain in much of the film (at least until the end). He was actually shown to be an extremely soft spoken, compassionate man who had absolutely no sadistic or misogynistic tendencies toward his slaves. He was willing to lose a large sum of money rather than see Mede (
Ken Norton) killed in a pivotal fight scene. The
normal (
heinous though it may be, but in all honesty, quite customary for the time), act of physically punishing his slaves sickened him and he was absolutely in love with Ellen (
Brenda Sykes), much to the chagrin of his horrid shrew of a wife, Blanche Maxwell (
Susan George). What's somewhat interesting is that Ellen loved him in return, even going so far as to wonder aloud why he was so kind and loving and thereby so very different from all of the other white men she'd encountered.
Of course, toward the end the film (perhaps because it was felt that featuring a good or even somewhat heroic character who also happened to be a white slave owner could present something of a problem morally), Hammond's character was, in some people's opinion (not mine) suddenly transformed into a villain.
He murdered his wife with poison (
however, put in context, this shrew lied to him from the beginning, claiming to be a virgin even though she'd slept with her brother!) She continued the lie rather than admit that she merely used him to escape her prior circumstances. She was spoiled, obnoxious, arrogant and that's only what he was aware of! She had also actually caused Ellen's miscarriage (
of Hammond's child which he had previously lovingly agreed to raise and grant freedom to), by beating the pregnant woman in a drunken fit of rage which resulted in Ellen's fall down a flight of stairs! Then, Blanche forces (
via threats of beatings or far worse) Hammond's Mandingo slave Mede to have sex with her on multiple occasions. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to Mede's child. The doctor calmly murders the bi-racial baby. Upon discovering the lies and all that has happened, Hammond essentially suffered a temporary psychotic break. His character had never been that of a casual murderer, but he had simply suffered a temporary breakdown.
While searching for Mede, Hammond is confronted by Ellen who desperately attempts to calm him down and appeal to his more rational, compassionate self, but he is simply too enraged to be able to listen to reason. And it is in this state of temporary insanity when he pushes her down and angrily tells her that she has no right to tell him what to do because she's just another (fill-in-the-ugly-hurtful-racial-epitath), thus proving that he never truly loved or respected her ...
except it doesn't prove that at all. Anyone who's been paying attention to the film in general and their character arc/love story can plainly see that he's talking purely out of anger, sheer frustration and unabated rage. As anyone with any common sense realizes (and let's be honest here)...we have regrettably, all of us, at one time or another, spoken to a loved one in such a callous manner.
Just as anyone could see throughout the film that Hammond was truly in love with Ellen.
As a result of the aforementioned events, Hammond kills mede in a particularly vengeful way. Hammond had
literally acted to save Mede's life earlier and then he discovers this ultimate (at least in his eyes) act of betrayal.
Although Hammond was only presented in a villainous manner toward the end of the film, I find that in many discussion threads (such as IMDB, etc...) he is looked upon as a villain, not so much for his actions throughout the film, but rather due to the circumstances of his birth and culture. Of course, no educated, rational human being would ever argue the merits of slavery, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who lived and thereby participated in that system was some depraved, foul disgusting human being. It is extraordinarily easy to paint a picture of vastly broad strokes and say that all Southern slave owners were evil, heinous and basically poor excuses for human beings, but that type of thinking is problematic to say the least. You see, it's so very easy to sit in judgement of a denounced cultural setting from the particularly safe vantage point of one hundred and fifty years later. But if any of us had actually been born into such a culture where slavery was the normal accepted practice ...where our families and friends and our schools and our churches merely reinforced such behavior, then you and I and I strongly suspect virtually all of us, would be, for the most part, what all human beings truly are ...merely products of their environment.
So in my estimation, based upon viewing the film "Mandingo", the character of Hammond Maxwell was not a villain.
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